Monday, June 30, 2003

SOMALIA: Thousands protest against violence NAIROBI, 30 June 2003 (IRIN) - Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday to protest against continuing violence and abductions in the city, according to one of the organisers.

Abdullahi Muhammad Shirwa of the Civil Society in Action told IRIN on Monday that the protest, one of the largest ever seen in the city, was organised by a grouping of 46 civil society organisations. These included women's and human rights groups, professionals and "even Koranic schools".

Habibo Haji Jim'ale, a member of the Law Society of Somalia, another of the organizers told IRIN that robberies, car-jackings, kidnappings and general banditry in the city had been increasing over the last eight months. MORE